Herts & Essex Fertility Centre is one of the UK’s most reputable and best performing IVF clinics with 29 years history. The clinic was founded in 1989 by our CEO Mr Michael Ah-Moye who has been building his impressive experience and expertise in Assisted Conception since 1984. Our dedicated team has helped to create thousands of happy new families by delivering over 5,900 babies.

We are experts in the assessment of fertility problems, and we identify the safest, surest and most cost-effective route to a successful pregnancy. We take immense pride in providing a medical service of the highest calibre, tailored to suit the individual needs of each patient, in a friendly, supportive and caring environment.

We believe that any individual willing to make a lifelong commitment to providing a loving, nurturing, caring and supportive environment for a child deserves the chance to become a parent. Therefore, we provide a number of different fertility treatments to help heterosexual couples, same-sex couples and single parents to start their family.

IUI, IVF, ICSI & PICSI

At our clinic, we offer a number of fertility treatments such as IUI, IVF, ICSI & PICSI.

IUI is a fertility treatment in which high-quality sperm are separated from slow-moving or nonmoving sperm. This sperm is then inseminated directly into the womb and can either be performed with the partner’s sperm or donor sperm.

IUI allows the body to do more on its own than on an IVF cycle, so it’s a more natural but also less successful form of treatment.

IVF and ICSI are laboratory techniques by which a single sperm fertilises a single mature egg. In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) the eggs are removed from the ovaries and fertilised by sperm in a glass dish in the laboratory whereas in ICSI a single sperm is chosen and injected into a mature egg using a very fine needle under microscopic control. ICSI assists the sperm to achieve fertilisation and is the recommended treatment for Male Factor Infertility.

PICSI is an additional sperm selection technique used to select mature sperm for use within ICSI.

Sperm are selected based on the sperm’s ability to interact with a naturally occurring protein that is found on the cumulus complex on the membrane surrounding the egg.

PICSI is an excellent choice for couples where the male partner has documented issues with sperm concentration, motility, morphology and/or functionality on HBA sperm analysis.

The decision as to which treatment is the most suitable for our patients will depend on the quality of the sperm sample provided on the day of the egg collection as the sperm quality can fluctuate on a regular basis.

EGG SHARING

There are various reasons why some women require treatment with donor eggs. It may be a result of their age seriously affecting egg quality, an early menopause, chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment permanently damaging the ovaries, unexplained infertility or that some women are born without ovaries.

Egg sharing anonymously brings together two women needing IVF treatment but for very different reasons. Many women will have the potential to produce plenty of eggs during their IVF treatment while the other cannot have treatment at all without the precious gift of donated eggs to fulfil her dream of a baby.

It gives women, who generously wish to donate eggs, the opportunity to help another woman and in return helps towards funding her own much-needed IVF treatment.

EGG FREEZING

Egg freezing enables healthy, young women the opportunity to preserve their fertility. We know that frozen eggs can be stored safely in liquid nitrogen for many years and our regulatory body, the HFEA, allows UK clinics to store frozen eggs for up to 10 years, enabling patients to use them for their treatment in the future. This may be when they have met the right partner or when they are financially or emotionally ready to start their family.

Egg freezing is an option to consider for fertility preservation if you are at risk of premature ovarian failure, premature menopause or if you are having surgery to remove your ovaries.

Egg freezing can also help preserve your fertility if you are undergoing radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatment for illnesses such as cancer or in cases of transgender reassignment.

Fertility is, unfortunately, age-dependent and your chance of a successful pregnancy with frozen eggs is higher if your eggs are frozen at a very early reproductive age. Success rates for treatment using frozen eggs depend upon many different factors so, when faced with a patient enquiring about egg freezing, we will always be honest and realistic.

We will provide an accurate account of what egg freezing treatment involves its advantages and disadvantages, and the potential success rates. As long as the decision is an informed and balanced one, we would never discourage a woman from choosing to freeze her eggs.

SPERM FREEZING

We offer fertility preservation in the form of sperm freezing and banking for men who wish to store their sperm to use for fertility treatment in the future including transgender reassignment.

Treatment with chemotherapy or radiotherapy or surgery for conditions that may damage your fertility is the most common reason for freezing sperm. It may be that you are about to undergo a vasectomy, or are undergoing treatment for cancer, or have a sperm count or sperm quality that is deteriorating prematurely.

We also freeze donated sperm for six months before it can be used in sperm donation treatment.

This allows for the sample to be routinely quarantined and undergo the required screening.

SURROGACY

We are one of the most experienced clinics in the UK in surrogacy; our experts have been successfully supporting intended parents and their surrogates for more than 100 cycles of surrogacy in the last 5 years.

Surrogacy describes the arrangement made when a woman agrees to become pregnant and have a baby for another couple. The woman having the baby is called the surrogate and she will be the legal mother at birth, if she is married her husband will be the legal father. If she is unmarried she can nominate either one of the intended parents to be the 2nd legal parent.

The intended parents will then need to apply for a parental order to become the legal parents, this needs to occur within 6 months of the baby being born

There are two forms of surrogacy: Full/host surrogacy and Partial/straight surrogacy.

FULL/HOST SURROGACY

In this scenario, the intended parents use IVF treatment to create embryos which are then placed in the uterus of the surrogate. the embryos must be created using at least one of the intended parents own eggs or sperm. The embryos are then placed in the uterus of the surrogate. .

PARTIAL/STRAIGHT SURROGACY

Partial surrogacy involves the surrogate becoming pregnant by artificial insemination or IVF, using the sperm from the intended father together with the surrogate’s eggs.

It’s illegal to become a surrogate for commercial reasons. Therefore the only payments that can be exchanged between the Intended Parents and their surrogate are those that can be classed as reasonable expenses.

IN-HOUSE SPERM BANK

Our clinic has been helping both heterosexual couples, same-sex couples and single women conceive using sperm donation for many years and to this end, we have established our very own in-house bank of sperm donors, who satisfy UK medical and legal guidelines to provide safe and regulated treatment for those requiring treatment using a sperm donor.

FREE IVF TREATMENT OFFER

Herts & Essex Fertility Centre are delighted to announce that they will be taking part in the Fertility Journeys project in collaboration with Fertility Road Magazine. Our fertility experts are coming on board to support this remarkable inventiveness and give hope and support to couples who are trying for a dream baby.

WHAT’S ON OFFER?

A FREE IVF TREATMENT & 40 FREE FERTILITY CONSULTATIONS

This year our clinic is celebrating the 40 years of IVF and will be offering a free fertility treatment (IVF/ICSI) including the medication to a lucky couple. In addition to this celebratory year, we will select 40 lucky couples for a free fertility consultation with one of our fertility doctors. The free consultation package consists of a full consultation, an Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) blood test and a semen analysis with Hyaluronan Binding Assay (HBA) assessment. Same-sex couples will either have two AMH tests or two semen assessments.

TO APPLY

To enter the draw for the incredible free round of IVF/ICSI or a chance to have one of the 40 fully funded consultation appointment, please read the terms and conditions below and follow the link to the form to submit your application.

Follow up consultation (if taken within three months of treatment completion)

Counselling

The prize does not include:

Cost of freezing embryos plus the storage of these gametes.

Surgical sperm retrieval

Empirical treatments

This prize does not include any costs of having donor treatment. If the prize winner needed donor eggs or sperm we would deduct the costs of the above and the recipient would need to pay the additional costs.

The value of this prize is in excess of £6000.

This prize could not be used against surrogacy treatment.

Treatment timings

We will contact the winner and aim to get them a consultation to start treatment as soon as possible, depending on their cycle.

Any offer of treatment is subject to the relevant Welfare of Child checks Patients would also need to have a BMI of less than 35 to undergo treatment.

If the subscriber has travelled to a Zika affected country they will be required to wait the length of the relevant quarantine period before treatment could commence.

Criteria selection for the free IVF cycle

The successful applicants that will be shortlisted for the free IVF treatment prize must be under the age of 38 years old and with a BMI between 19 – 35.

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